One of the scariest aspects of retiring is figuring out if you'll have enough money to support yourself through retirement. No matter your age, it is wise to ensure that you're saving enough to cover any expenses you may incur later. In this direct, concise book, retirement-security expert Teresa Ghilarducci makes suggestions (and offers explanations) for relatively simple but necessary goals: controlling pre-retirement spending, taking advantage of work retirement plans, and maximizing Social Security.

Ever have your email or Facebook account hacked? That's a minor problem compared to all the other ways your identity could be compromised, according to consumer advocate Adam Levin. In Swiped, Levin reveals the common business practices that expose personal information, and shares strategies for minimizing your risks -- and for handling identity theft, should you be unlucky enough to become a victim.

And now for something completely different, at least when it comes to the office workplace: instead of relying on financial rewards to motivate employees, author Shawn Murphy argues that leaders should focus on fostering an energizing climate that allows personal growth and professional development to thrive. Backed with research and real-world examples, Murphy emphasizes that targeting the human side of an organization can lead to a healthy bottom line.

Veteran financial advisor Jane Bryant Quinn targets retirement planning in this comprehensive guide to both the financial and the psychological sides of retirement. In addition to plenty of useful information for maximizing savings (including "rightsizing" your spending), Quinn also addresses mentally preparing to leave the structure of a work-focused life for one you get to create yourself. If you've got lots of questions about how best to handle retirement, this will be an invaluable resource.

The Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of The Year

You've seen some of the nominees for this award already appear in this newsletter; here are some you may have missed (including the winner!).

Judges selected this thought-provoking (some might say "alarming") book on the impact of automation on society as the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. Written by a tech expert and entrepreneur in the field of artificial intelligence, it offers stark reasons for fearing for our jobs -- and our futures. Relayed in a straight-forward manner, and with a few suggestions for policy changes, Rise of the Robots "makes clear the need to come to grips with ever more rapidly advancing technology" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

Despite the promise that lithium-ion batteries could reduce our dependence on oil, battery-powered cars remain a small market, mostly because the technology just isn't good enough...yet. Tracking the race to the next big breakthrough, author Steve LeVine focuses his research on a federal facility, the Argonne National Laboratory just outside Chicago, but expands to address the industry as a whole. From patents and corporate espionage to geopolitics and IPOs, this riveting book examines both the challenges and the advances in the industry thus far.

In Leadership BS, management expert Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that the leadership industry has been motivated -- to its detriment -- by money rather than by any real desire to achieve positive change. He also compares commonly promoted leadership qualities (like modesty) with their commonly rewarded opposites (self-promotion), encouraging rethinking accepted wisdom on some subjects. The book provides a contentious stance, and reviews are mixed, with some hailing it as revolutionary, and others as disappointing; either way, it's sure to shake things up.

There's an entire industry centered on predicting the future, and these forecasters work with data on everything from the weather to politics to big business. Though Superforecasting isn't the only book on this topic, it does offer an interesting perspective: author Philip Tetlock's highly competitive team of "superforecasters" are all volunteers with ordinary jobs. If you're interested in the science of decision-making, or in improving your own ability to predict the future based on the information you have (and gain), this is the book for you.

Author Richard Thaler has been studying behavioral economics for forty years (and has been called "a founding father" of this branch of economic theory); this book recalls the struggle to be recognized during the early days of the field, provides an excellent explanation of the research, and throws in plenty of stories, creative analogies, and humor to boot. Readers familiar with the field will appreciate this history; those who have not read up on behavioral economics may want to start with Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational.

Between 1997 and 2005, author Stephen Witt admits to downloading (for free) nearly 15,000 albums, which prompted him to look into exactly how he was able to do this. The result is a fascinating exploration of digital technology and music piracy, beginning with the invention of the MP3 format in the 1980s. Also featured: the North Carolina man who smuggled thousands of new releases to a prolific file-sharing ring, the rise and fall of Napster, and the music industry's (mostly failed) attempts to stanch the bleeding.